Discussion

I have a question for the French students. There seems to be less negativity towards the police in France which seems bizarre to me considering the amount of riots and strikes. It should follow that there is resentment towards them which is not seen as much in the responses. Why is this so?

I also find this to be quite interesting. I would not have expected such radically different ideas about the police between both sides. Is it, perhaps, that cops must undergo a more rigorous and formal training in France than in the United States? Or could this difference stem from past historical events that don't necessarily reflect the technical state of the profession today?

In addition to the above comments, the answers from the students in France seem to convey greater respect for the police and associate less violence with them. The responses also seem to be more objective than subjective. Is this due to a difference in the role or behavior of the police in France and the United States, or is this due to a difference in attitude towards the police because of cultural (or historical, as Pedro commented above) differences? In what situations are police publicly seen?

Sometimes, I am not sure whether media reflects what happens in society or whether it's the other way around. However, I wonder if the negative associations with police in the US are partly due to the fact that in the news, in movies, and in television shows, we often hear about the mistakes the police make or see the police being made fun of. For example, I saw a dance show this weekend that used a police officer's character as a point of ridicule, which made me think of this discussion. Do you see things like this in France? What do you think of this?

It's hard to explain the greater number of gun-related deaths in the US than in Canada, but this is actually a point of debate in the US. I lived in an area of the US for awhile where hunting was very popular and so many families owned guns. In areas like these, it is hard to control arms, especially with the 2nd amendment of the US constitution, the right to bear arms. Some people feel that it is their right to own weapons. From what I have seen, I think that there are about 10 times more guns/person in the US than Canada, though.

I haven't paid much attention to the question of the death penalty recently, although it is a political issue in the US. In fact, I believe that different states have different policies. An argument that I have heard for the penalty is that it will discourage people from commiting certain crimes--I think this tends to be a conservative view. An argument against the death penalty is that it is inappropriate and that there is always the possibility of a person is in fact innocent. What are the views of this in France?

Francois-Xavier, I think you mentioned some groups are not viewed well in France--I'm particularly interested in why are bankers not viewed well in France?